Dying
by paracuties
Summary: What if Yukio HAD shot Rin in the classroom that day? What would've happened, then? [AU, T for language]
1. Chapter 1

**Before you start reading, you have to know something. This story may contain some things that are not actually true and do not follow the anime/manga. (And, well, it's AU, so there's going to be a lot that doesn't follow canon, but I'm saying some of the facts presented in there.) **

**The idea popped into my head when I first watched the anime, and I always wanted to write it, even after reading the manga and finding some stuff that didn't go along with my AU. So. Please do not review and complain about information being wrong, the story being stupid, etc. It's AU. **

**With that said, please enjoy. This is being posted quite spontaneously, so I may or may not continue it. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own the amazing Ao no Exorcist. **

…

The black metal glinted deviously. My breath caught as I stared at the dangerous weapon, leveled at my chest with a practiced ease. This wasn't something I'd imagined could happen—at least, from the current individual in front of me. It had certainly happened before, probably far too many times to be normal, but all those times they'd been my enemies, to a certain extent. The teenager in front of me…was my twin.

My twin, Okumura Yukio, younger than me by a mere couple of minutes, was pointing a gun at me, ready to kill me out of not a sense of justice, but a sort of revenge—revenge for his innocent father's death. And in his eyes, I'd caused it.

"Don't you dare point a gun at your brother," I growled angrily, noticing blue fire lit upon me. What was wrong with him? I could see through his still, blank façade—he was scared of what he wanted to do, but he was so, so willing to go through with it anyway. He wanted everything to return to normal, where I was clueless about my nature, and his amazing father, not to mention his role model, was not sent to forever stay six feet underground. But then, that wasn't possible, and he saw another reality through this choice: if I was shot and killed; if he could simply get rid of me, then he would not be reminded of his relation to a demon—the son of Satan, at that—and he could continue on with his job as prodigious exorcist, teaching exorcist classes while being swooned over from all the girls in his classes. He could mourn his father's death quietly, without a twin brother he blamed his father's death on to barge in and disturb his peace, and he could move on without any more burdens.

But we were currently in the midst of an unexpected battle. As a huge, teeth-baring hobgoblin rippled in the air, forming into existence, I drew my sword and lunged for the demon looming over my little brother's shoulder, while at the same time, Yukio's eyes twitch of the finger—a shot, fired_—_a screech from the dying demon I'd sliced in half—pain, terrible pain pulsating in my chest—

I found myself with a broken sword in my hands as it slammed harshly into the tiled floor, cut fingers dribbling thick, red liquid as I lay in a puddle of the same blood. A shuddered breath escaped out my lungs as I felt my body fight for life.

Careful hands were tugging at my arm, and I saw white for a moment as Yukio flipped me onto my back and I gasped, hands spasming as I attempted to reach the literal hole in my chest.

"Rin, oh God, Rin—I'm sorry," he said, voice trembling, and it was the first time in a long time that I heard that fearful, shaky voice—the voice that Yukio had often had as a child, afraid of the demons I had been unable to see.

I didn't _want_ to blame my brother. I didn't _want_ him to live with guilt, and so I reached up with a bloody hand, eyesight blurring at the strain, attempting to touch his cheek and give him a small smile before a last sigh escaped me, and my soul—if I had a soul—left this body.

…

"Gughhhhh," I gurgled, lungs breathing in an arid, but rather clear, air. Where _was _I? Eyes blinking open, I found myself in a completely different landscape than just a couple moments before. I thought of sitting up, and I was suddenly sitting up—the body I currently possessed appeared to be flexible and strong, tough and fluid. Even so, I was gasping for breath, still adjusting to my new body.

And then I thought. I knew that I had died. And dead people either went to Heaven or Hell. Er, Gehenna, as it seemed to be. Then was this Gehenna? Because this was, quite obviously, not Heaven.

…Well, I was the devil's son, after all. I couldn't really have expected to go to Heaven.

Strength felt to have returned to me, so I leaned forward—and my knees and spine immediately, easily, straightened—I was already standing firmly on my two feet. I brushed off the seat of my pants with an automatic gesture, taking in my dark surroundings. Well, maybe not necessarily dark—there were red fires burning sporadically on the rocky, scarred terrain: some tiny candle flames and others enormous bonfires triple my height. The sky, a rusty, dry-blood hue, flashed with random images. I watched for a moment, eyes widening at them—they were of Assiah!

There was one of soldiers fighting: the Americans in ragtag farming clothing, hiding quietly behind the natural shrubbery and waiting to ambush the orderly British soldiers marching their way. Another was of a young girl shrilly arguing with her parents, upset that she wasn't allowed to visit her friend's house. And another, where normal civilians perused racks of vegetables, fruits, and meats in an average grocery store, chatting amiably or glancing at grocery lists. My eyes kept darting back and forth between images that appeared and disappeared, and I finally glanced away, head swimming. What did this mean? Was this how demons learned about Assiah and its peoples' customs, through these…images of history or average day-to-day events?

Was _I _supposed to sit here and watch them, then? Was this my punishment for being the devil's son—to watch images of Assiah, forever desperately wishing I could be back there?

I shook my head. That was ridiculous. Both the idea and that dramatic sentence. That was…not going to be my fate, as cheesy as _that _phrase sounded too. I was going to get out of here—_unless you're supposed to stay here, _a little voice told me. I scowled. Glancing around, I searched for something, anything, that could get me out of here, and a small, black object floated in front of my vision. Swatting it away angrily, I watched as it landed on the writhing ground and broke apart. Wait—_writhing_? With a morbid fascination, I bent down, absentmindedly noticing the pulsing underneath my feet as I watched body parts packed tightly together squirm in the ground. I flicked the head of the little black object I had swatted, and it landed a distance away, attaching itself to a thin, wiggling string and floating up, once again, into the air.

Repulsed, I backed away, straightening up again as I shook my head. I was going to get out of here, and _fast. _Gehenna was the creepiest place I'd ever been—but then, I suppose that must've been expected.

With a twist of my heel, I turned away—simply to run directly into a hard, tall, and thin boulder. I rubbed my face, glaring at it as if it was sentient, before stepping to the left and attempting to walk around it.

…Well, it _was_ sentient after all, seeing how it had appeared in front of me again.

"Wh-whoa!" I stumbled backward, eyes focusing on it and watching as it brightened—in reality, my eyes probably adjusted to the darkness—only for a very familiar face to appear.

"Mephisto?!"

He smirked. "Hello, Rin."

I blinked. He looked different. _Very _different, I realized, as I stared at his dark, dully-shining liquid-like clothing, molded around him but appearing much bulkier than a simple cotton shirt and pants—it was a little like armor. Liquid armor, then.

I shook my head. Now was not the time to be concerned about physical appearances, but then—

"Wait, what are _you _doing down here?"

He simply smiled, hovering slightly above the ground, causing his tall, slinky body to appear even taller.

"…You have _wings_?"

I realized that maybe physical appearances were quite important after all, as I noticed a slinky, dark purple rope-like thing whipping into view. A tail much like mine, only different in color. He finally chose to set himself down on the ground, large, leathery bat wings slowly folding in upon themselves.

"I think I could say the same about you, too, dear little imbecile."

I narrowed my eyes. I didn't know what that last word meant, but it sounded like an insult. Then I realized what, exactly, he'd said, and my eyes widened involuntarily as I reached backward, hands grasping at…at a thin, sensitive membrane. The sensation was quite the stimulus, as if the nerve-endings there were a hundred times more sensitive than any other part of my skin. The finger brushing the wing jerked away from it, and I subconsciously jerked the wing back too, beyond startled.

Mephisto tsked, grabbing my attention again. "Rin-kun, I would've thought you'd realize it by now."

His eyebrows were raised above sinister, fire-pupiled peridot eyes. I stared, and compiled everything I'd just noticed about him.

"You're a demon!" I accused, belatedly finding my statement quite obvious. "Then what are you doing playing exorcist headmaster?"

The demon only smirked. "Assiah is my chess game, little brother. And all of you are my chess pieces."

I wrinkled my forehead. That didn't make any sense at all. He was playing chess with us? Then…who was he playing against?

"You called me 'little brother'. What's that supposed to mean?"

"What do you think? Surely not from your mother's side, as I'm centuries old. Far greater than that, even."

"You're…you're Satan's son _too_?"

Mephisto threw his head back and laughed at that. I didn't see what was so funny, and chose to say so.

"Rin," he snickered, "why do you sound so surprised by that? Surely you didn't think your mother was the only woman who chose to involve herself with Satan."

My eyes widened. "You're…like me? What—who _are _you?"

"Ah." Mephisto spread his hands, claw-tipped fingers gleaming from the bright fire. "You finally asked, and although I was planning to inform you of this at a later time, I suppose I cannot delay this conversation any longer. I am Samael, King of Time and Space."

He paused for dramatic effect. "There is a hierarchy of the Eight Demon Kings, the Baal, with Satan above us all ruling over the entirety of Gehenna. I am second in this hierarchy, unfortunately. We are all Satan's children. So you could say...we're all your brothers."

My head reeled. I had eight half-brothers?! Not to mention the fact that they were all the Hell Kings…

"Okay…I'm asking about that later. Right now, I want to know what I'm doing here. Am I dead?"

"Ha! Dead!" The demon king guffawed. "No, you are not dead. You are _very _much alive, Rin. In fact, you are now a full-blooded demon—and your human body is waiting for you to claim it again.

"When your demon heart is un-sealed, or if it was never sealed in the first place, then it is guaranteed that, as a half-demon, you will live out your human life however it may go, and then continue your existence as a demon for eternity. For quarter-demons or less, it is slightly different, as they have less of a chance than half-demons in immortality, but that's something better left for later. In your case, when you broke your sword, Kurikara, your demon heart should have flown into your body and become a part of your soul. However, your human counterpart was dying at the time, and so it chose to materialize down here, waiting for the moment your mind and soul left Assiah to travel down to Gehenna. Most likely, your demon body was attracted to the soul and mind it had become familiar with, trapped in the sword as it was, and your soul and demon body 'combined' for your revival as a demon."

His hands, from where they were poised in the air to create quotation marks, settled back onto his cotton-candy cane, looking out of place in the dark and gloomy land of Gehenna. It was surprisingly standing up without support, but when I peered closer at it…well, not-so-surprisingly standing up on its own, then. It was a demon itself.

"I—"

The prospect of immortality was daunting. I couldn't completely wrap my mind around it, what with everything that had happened in the last couple of minutes.

"Alright, fine. I'm going to live forever. No big deal. I need to deal with the present right now, and you're going to tell me how to get back."

I glared at him. He was taking amusement out of everything he'd told me and my reaction to it all, and damn it if I wasn't going to at least get some real help out of him.

He chuckled. "My, my, you're a little feisty today. Alright. Close your eyes, then."

I closed my eyes uncertainly, choosing to keep one slightly cracked open in case he tried something.

"Ah-ah, all the way."

I acquiesced, disgruntled.

"Visualize yourself in Assiah, at True Cross Academy. What we need you to do is return to Assiah by possessing a human body—your body, to be exact. In that sense, it is not _your _body anymore, but the human you are possessing. Now, look around. Find where your body is located in your mind's eye. Imagine yourself entering that body, possessing it as yours, and we'll go from there."

"Wait—"

My eyes flew open. "Hasn't everybody already seen me dead? They've definitely entered the classroom by now, what with all the noise inside, so if I just suddenly came back to life—"

Mephisto tsked. "Nein, my little brother. I simply took your body to my office. It's lying on my floor as of currently. The students don't know that you've died yet. Yukio, however, may need this explained to him as well."

He laid a hand on his eyes, tilting his head upward. "Oh, the troubles I go to for family...," the armored demon murmured.

My face burned in anger, but I turned away and did as he explained. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and attempted to imagine the school. I was standing next to the fountain, and I looked around, somehow seeing all the humans and their potential. A couple flared brightly, and I assumed they were the exorcists-in-training, apparently still waiting outside the dilapidated classroom. An even brighter flame burned somewhere in the corner of my eye though, and I zoomed in on it, unsure if it was my—no, Okumura Rin's body. Except I was him. Just...somehow, not anymore. Deciding it was worth a try, as there was no other flame brighter than this one, I imagined myself taking over it, taking the body as mine...

I gasped. My eyes sluggishly snapped open, and I could still feel the chill in my bones, in my organs, in my heart...the chill of a dead body.

…

**I know some parts are written really awkwardly, and I apologize for that. Someday, I may go back and re-write it, but for now, I mostly want feedback on this idea. **

**Please review! **

**~paracuties**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, guys. I got some pretty good feedback for the first chapter (thank you to all reviewers, including all guest reviewers, and followers and favoriters), so I decided to continue it. Keep in mind, though, since this was posted spontaneously, it's all I have written so far. I have no idea what's going to happen, and updates will happen whenever I have the time to write…which certainly won't be happening a lot. Junior year of high school is tough, guys. I'm sure you college people are laughing at my weakness, but I'm taking five AP classes. FIVE. And that includes calculus and calculus-based physics. *sigh***

**Anyway. Rant about the terribleness of my life, if that's a word. Hope you enjoy the second chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I'm making no profit off of this. **

…

_I gasped. My eyes sluggishly snapped open, and I could still feel the chill in my bones, in my organs, in my heart...the chill of a dead body._

…

I glanced around wildly, stiff and already feeling constricted as a demon in a human's body. Apparently this was Mephisto's office. It was surprisingly spacious, with a potted plant and matching oak-wood furniture placed artistically around the room. Mephisto himself was seated at his desk, a smug expression plastered on his face.

I pulled myself off of the ground, stiffly shaking out my limbs as Mephisto watched on. "So...what do I do now?"

The purple-haired demon smirked. "You may need to get back to class to, ah, clear things up a bit. Oh!"

A thought seemed to occur to him. "I was going to sit in on that class, wasn't I?"

Cue puff of sparkly purple smoke. He then stared at me for a moment, drooping eyes looking me up and down critically, and muttered, "Eins, zwei, drei," startling me as cool, smooth clothing replaced my stiff, blood-dried uniform, dripping hair ruffling dry and clean.

"Wha—"

I patted myself down. My uniform was crisp and clean, better than it had been even this morning when I'd donned it. A thought suddenly occurred to me—where was my bullet wound? I probed at the area above my heart through my clothing, feeling nothing but smooth, unbroken skin. A quick glance at the puddle of blood on Mephisto's office floor revealed the small, silver bullet lying there, winking wickedly.

"Come on, you don't want your classmates panicking, do you?"

I shook myself out of my reverie and pulled out my key, inserting it in his office door. The exorcist school hall expanded in front of me again, but this time I completely disregarded the vivid swaths of color laid on the floor, walls and ceiling. As I debated which hall to take, not quite remembering which one I had taken the last time, Mephisto decided to trot down the right path without waiting for me. He disappeared into the shadows, and I chased wildly after him, the little stubs of legs he had somehow carrying him farther than mine did for me.

He stopped very suddenly. I pulled to a halt, and I couldn't help but stare almost apprehensively at the door. Apparently my classmates weren't waiting around outside anymore. Oh, crap. Was the room still a mess? Was that puddle of blood still there?

I steadied myself, breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth once before yanking the heavy wooden door open. Multiple heads immediately swiveled in my direction. A sharp cough emanated from the front, where my little brother was wiping the floor.

"Where the hell did you go, Okumura?!"The chicken-head roared at me.

I replied nervously, "Oh, ah, Yukio was kinda mad, so I escaped out the window."

Chicken-head rolled his eyes. "The windows are at least seven feet up. Unless you have supreme jumping skills, that's impossible."

His eyes narrowed when I didn't reply. "Whatever. Somehow, you disappeared. Okumura-sensei was worried. And the classroom was in complete disarray when he called us in, wiping the floor. He told us to clean up the room, and hasn't talked since. And he's still wiping the floor."

I glanced at Yukio again. He _was _still wiping the floor, but even from here, I could smell the sharp tang of salt from his eyes, slowly rolling down his cheeks as he rubbed the wood clean. His shaggy hair, fortunately for him, covered it from everybody else.

"Uh, Yukio?" I started apprehensively. His shoulders tensed. I decided to talk to him about the...situation later.

"So, um." I shoved my hands into my pockets. With a small sense of surprise, I realized Mephisto had kept the chains I regularly wore on these pants as well. I thought he would've confiscated them with that magic of his.

"Do I just start cleaning too?"

The chicken-head rolled his eyes. "What do you think? Sit there and be king—"

I flinched imperceptibly, and fortunately they didn't notice. "—and wait for us to finish cleaning? Uh, no. Here. Help carry those broken desks out."

He gestured with a point of his finger at the cracked desks near the front, and I couldn't help but notice how close they were to Yukio.

I shrugged. "Sure."

As I neared the broken slabs of wood, our mole-faced teacher slowed with the wiping of the floor. I could almost smell the disbelief and shock at seeing me alive and healthy coming off of him, although he did hide it well.

"Hey."

He didn't respond. I lit a wet corner of his rag spontaneously, trying to get his attention. It sizzled and went out the second the small blue flame appeared, but Yukio scrambled back and away from it as if it were a man-eating spider, unfortunately creating a loud racket as he bumped into the table behind him and it scooted noisily across the floor.

All eyes were back at the front of the classroom. "Uh, thought I saw something," he said in a deceptively light tone, even adding a nervous laugh at the end.

He stood up. "Excuse me for a moment."

Without another word, he quickly darted out the classroom, and after a moment or two, the door slamming closed, chicken-head commented, "That was weird."

A slender girl with vibrant ruby eyes and dark violet hair pulled into two pigtails muttered, "He seems pathetic."

The mousy, plain-looking girl beside her shrugged, and as I glanced over the rest of them, I could tell those two girls were close friends of some sort, and chicken-head, a pink-haired guy, and a short bald monk-like boy were close as well, sweeping the floor while talking quietly.

The comment from ruby-eyes—and now that I noticed, she also had a pair of strange, tiny little eyebrows seemingly pulled into a frown for eternity—pissed me off (should it have?), however.

"Don't talk about my brother like that."

I glared at her, still conflicted as to whether or not I should have defended him. She stared defiantly back. "He's just going through a hard time right now. I...our father recently passed away."

The news appeared to throw them off, and chicken-head at least had the decency to look contrite. Eyebrows, however, only frowned even further and with a harrumph, turned back to cleaning the classroom. I sighed.

_I probably should be going after Yukio right now, even _if _he shot—_accidentally _shot me_, I thought and corrected myself, _but_..._he—_

_He seems like he needs a little space,_ an amused voice commented.

"That's what I was about to say!" I snapped, and only after listening to my voice echo around the classroom, my classmates staring at me as if I were crazy, I realized my classmates somehow hadn't heard that.

"Haha...talking to myself," I chuckled uncertainly, and they resumed working after one more strange glance at me.

_Wha—are you Mephisto?_ I glanced at the dog in suspicion. He appeared to be snoozing on a desk that had miraculously avoided death and destruction.

No response. I shook my head, and finally satisfied with the pile of wood I had made, picked it up from the base and carefully maneuvered my way to the door. After yanking the door open, the door handle squeaky and stiff, I quickly made my way to a door in the hall and stepped out, this time stepping into a grassy courtyard. The door behind me appeared to be a storage door, gray and barred with a broken lock. Huh. I had found my way back to the door I had stepped through to gain access to the exorcist school for the first time.

The pile of wood disposed of in the trees nearby, I was about to return when I heard a familiar voice muttering something.

"Yukio?"

He swung around, startled, his hand nearing his belt automatically.

His eyes were slightly red, I could tell. His face, though startled for a moment at first, turned blank again, and I gritted my teeth. Why was he always trying to hide things? I found myself filled with a startling resentment, not only for his attempted murder of his own brother—and for a curious second, I wondered why I wasn't angrier, more horrified about that—but also because of how _he said nothing._ Yukio never confided in me, yet I trusted—_had_ trusted (and did I still trust?)—him to the nth degree.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, said more to break the prolonged silence than out of any curiosity.

"I could ask the same about you," he said calmly. "What are _you _doing here, alive in Assiah?"

I spluttered. "You—do you even _care_? Did you set all this up?"

"No!" he said, surprise and horror expressed in his gestures. "I _do _care! I…I'm…it was just…"

"Just an accident, right?" I demanded. We both knew I was referring to the fact that he'd shot me, directly in the heart.

His eyes darted away for a second, towards the ground, before meeting mine again. "Yeah. Of course."

Another light, deceptively cheerful laugh. Dread settled in the pit of my stomach, but some desperate part of me hung on to the hope that Yukio meant what he said. We fell into silence again. After a moment, I said, "We better return to class then. Ready?"

He nodded. When I didn't step forward immediately, he pulled out a ring with a set of keys jangling from it, selecting the correct one before inserting it into the storage room door. I caught the door as he stepped in, slipping inside and following just a couple feet behind.

Class resumed after everything was cleaned up, fifteen minutes late. The ones without a _Mashō_ were given one, and I watched each of my classmates jerk in surprise as a teeth-baring, eyelid-drooping demon appeared in front of their eyes. It barely distracted from my inner turmoil at hearing Yukio's blatant lie, played over and over again as I wished and attempted to detect any trace of truth in his voice.

Yukio's lesson continued with an introduction of demons and ways to combat wounds from certain types, with the promise of an upcoming quiz and homework on today's lesson. I folded up the paper and shoved it into my pocket without another thought, striding after Mephisto as he panted at me and then darted forward into the high, arched hallways.

"Mephisto," I started as he guided me to my dorm room. The dog glanced at me before looking forward again, stubby tail wagging all-the-while.

"Can you communicate telepathically with other demons?"

He glanced at me again. "Me? Or the general higher-level demon?"

I shrugged. "Either."

He hummed. "Why do you ask?"

I knit my eyebrows together, fed up with his evading of the question. "Because I think you spoke to me in my head earlier," I said bluntly, glaring at him and crossing my arms.

The dog chuckled. "Oh, Rin, are you sure weren't imagining things? I know you've been under a lot of stress lately because of all the drama going on in your life. Maybe you need a little rest."

"Shut up," I growled. "I know it's not that. I know I heard you in my head."

He harrumphed. "Believe what you want. It might be difficult for you to accept things others say right now, especially since you've been lied to your entire life."

We walked the rest of the way to my dorm in silence, but just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I found Yukio sitting at the desk on the right side, his belongings settled neatly into place already.

He swiveled around in his chair, greeting me with a smile. He was a good actor, but I'd known him for too long to fall for the act. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I was lying to myself. He'd meant to kill me, and the betrayal hurt far more than the initial pain of the wound.

Still, I couldn't just outright say it. I wasn't sure what would happen if I did, but another fight could start then and there, and if it escalated into something serious, only one of us would survive—me, because I was immortal. My body might not, and then I'd have to possess another human to return to Assiah—which certainly wasn't appealing, nor was it humane. The thought of fighting my little brother to the death clearly wasn't, either, and I'd be the one to be labeled a criminal, forever on the run from the Grigori afterwards because of my crime.

So I greeted him just as cheerfully, voicing another question of mine. He answered with, "I am your roommate for the rest of the school year. Because I am also an official exorcist, I am assigned to watch you as well. I am a jailer, of sorts."

I pretended to be flustered and annoyed, expressing it through a bunch of yelling and moaning. He responded with amiable statements that were meant to further annoy me, and if…that incident hadn't occurred, this might have been another normal interaction between the two of us. But it wasn't.

…

**So this chapter was a little depressing. Just warning you, it may still be depressing in further upcoming chapters. I think. **

**(And there's a storm going on outside right now! Yessss!)**

**Please review! If you didn't like the direction this chapter is heading or prefer chapters to be longer in length, then let me know. Again, since I'm writing this on the go, without any backup chapters to try and update somewhat regularly, then I can write stuff according to what you guys think should happen. (It doesn't necessarily mean it **_**will**_**, but just that I will consider it.)**

**Also, if you thought this chapter was too dramatic, then let me know as well. I don't want it to start sounding ridiculous. **

**~paracuties**


End file.
